Our Swansea Centre has marked an incredible year of progress, a year defined by growth, partnership, and the inspiring achievements of our learners.

On 22 April, the centre opened its doors to staff, partners, and learners, celebrating the accomplishments from the past 12 months. As the centre filled the atmosphere was full of energy, with welcome drinks, refreshments, and a presentation highlighting the centre’s impact and success.

Itec’s Jobs Growth Wales+ Operations Manager, Adele Hughes, began the presentation reflecting on the journey so far. “It has been an exciting and rewarding year,” she shared. “Taking a moment to recognise the hard work and dedication of the team, making the past year a success. I would also like to thank the partners supporting from pre day one in getting us to where we are now”

Adele’s reflections set the tone for a celebration of both growth and appreciation.

Hannah Sloan JGW+ Wellbeing Coordinator, presented the remarkable growth to a full room, highlighting: “Our team has expanded from two to twelve employees, strengthening our delivery capacity,” she explained. “We’ve grown from eight learners to 170, showing rapid programme adaptation… growing our placement opportunities from 1 to 21, reflecting our strong employee engagement”

 

She went on to emphasise that the centre’s success is about more than numbers. “All of the growth reflects our strong partnership, effective outreach and high-quality learners… Our impact is not just scale; it is outcomes. 85% of our learners achieved a formal qualification, 81.2% progressed to employment, further education or training, Delivering 1040+ meaningful support sessions to our learners”

Partner Reflections

The presentation also shone a spotlight on our JGW+ partners who play a vital role in supporting our learners.

Ian Evans from Greenspaces SOS, highlighted during the presentation the value of the partnership with JGW+, commenting:

“We’ve had seven placements over the last year and a half and held two big community events with Itec. Forty to fifty learners came in to help us on projects, and it’s been fundamental to our tremendous growth over the last two years.”

He went on to explain how essential the partnership has been for their organisation. “Without Itec, I don’t know where we would have found 16–19‑year‑olds who fit our model of training people from the start. We’ll be taking on two learners in the next couple of months.”

 

Christine, the volunteer manager at Cwtch Mawr shared how vital the partnership has been: “We have partnered with Itec and get two different streams of learners… They come in and we give them essential workstreams, We currently have two learners, they are amazing they are the nicest people, they give so much to the company”

 

She added how vital this support is to their mission commenting: “We are so grateful because otherwise we can not actually do what we do … as we are a community charity”

Learner Stories

To bring the presentation to a close, we turned our attention to the heart of the JGW+ programme, the incredible learner stories.

Brandan reflected on how Itec changed his view of education. “I was not really keen on education but when I came to Itec, I was let in with open arms, everyone was kind, it is a really good establishment to come into and its perfect for a person that is not to keen on what they want to do in life”

 

Callum knew he wanted to go to university to become a barrister, but missing his maths GCSE left him unsure of his next step for a few months until he found Itec Swansea. “Itec is very welcoming,” he said. “There were so many opportunities, courses, placements, and work opportunities.”

 

Dan shared how the programme helped him grow in confidence: “Itec has helped me become more confident. I have done a barista course with Itec, and now I am on placement as a barista”

 

Hannah Sloan commented: “Our learners are not just completing the programme, they are moving forward with purpose and setting themselves for a positive, sustainable future.”